1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pipe cutter, and more particularly to a pipe cutter that can be operated accurately and prevents a blade of the pipe cutter from wearing down in use.
2. Description of Related Art
With reference to FIGS. 5 and 6, a conventional pipe cutter (60) is used to cut a pipe (50) and has a body (61), a mounting sleeve (62), a drive shaft (63) and an operating head (64).
The body (61) may be C-shaped and has a front end, a rear end, an internal surface, multiple wheels (611), an extension tube (612) and a position element (613). The wheels (611) are rotatably mounted in the internal surface of the body (61) near the front end. The extension tube (612) is formed on and protrudes from the rear end of the body (61) and corresponds to the wheels (611). The position element (613) is movably and radially mounted in the extension tube (612) near the rear end of the body (61).
The mounting sleeve (62) is hollow, is slidably mounted in the extension tube (612) of the body (61) and has a front end, a rear end, an inner surface, an outer surface, an inner thread (621) and multiple position grooves (622). The front end of the mounting sleeve (62) extends out of the extension tube (612) and faces to the wheels (611) of the body (61). The inner thread (621) is formed on the inner surface of the mounting sleeve (62) at the rear end. The position grooves (622) are formed on the outer surface of the mounting sleeve (62) and selectively engage the position element (613) of the body (61) to hold the mounting sleeve (62) with the body (61).
The drive shaft (63) is mounted in the mounting sleeve (62) and has a drive end, a connecting end and a blade (631). The drive end of the drive shaft (63) extends out of the front end of the mounting sleeve (62) and faces to the wheels (611) of the body (61). The blade (631) is rotatably attached to the drive end of the drive shaft (63).
The operating head (64) is rotatably engaged the inner thread (621) of the mounting sleeve (62) and is connected securely to the connecting end of the drive shaft (63) to push the blade (631) of the drive shaft (63) to move close to the wheels (611) of the body (61).
When the conventional pipe cutter (60) is used to cut a pipe (50), the pipe (50) is put transversely in the body (61) near the wheels (61) and the position element (613) is pressed relative to the body (61) to make the mounting sleeve (62) moving toward the front end of the body (61) and the blade (631) of the drive shaft (63) abutting an external surface of the pipe (50). Consequently, the pipe (50) is squeezed between the wheels (611) and the blade (631). The body (61) is rotated relative to the pipe (50) to make the blade (631) rotating with the pipe (50) to form a kerf on the external surface of the pipe (50), and the operating head (64) is simultaneously rotated relative to the mounting sleeve (62) to make the blade (631) moving toward the pipe (50) and cut the pipe (50) into two segments. Accordingly, the pipe (50) can be cut by the conventional pipe cutter (60).
However, the feeding distance of the blade (631) for cutting the pip (50) is unclear so that the operating head (64) has to be rotated continuously relative to the mounting sleeve (62) even after the pipe (50) has been cut. In addition, the drive shaft (63) has a rigid structure and may push the blade (631) overly against the external surface of the pipe (50) and this may cause the blade (631) wearing down and has to be changed with a new one.
Furthermore, when the drive shaft (63) overly presses the blade (631) against the external surface of the pipe (50), and the cross-section of the cut pipe (50) may be deformed and this will influence the fluency of the fluid flowing inside the cut segments of the pipe (50).
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides a pipe cutter to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.